338
28
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-MISCELLANEOUS.
the two rice-crops, is due to the disturbance at these times of mosquitoes, usually resting among the grass or growing paddy, and feeding on Chinese coming within their reach, such disturbance resulting in their flying further afield and finding their way in larger numbers to the houses on the hills.
8. Having given our most careful consideration to the facts above stated, in all their bearings, we have come to the conclusion that all temporary measures for the improvement of the health of the station at Táipó should be superseded with as little delay as possible by a definite scheme for the complete eradication of the breeding-places of the Anopheles mosquito over a wide area surrounding the Police Station.
The district involved is too large to be efficiently dealt with by any culcicide; the cutting and clearing of long grass and shrubs from the hillside is only a subsidiary measure, though undoubtedly a useful one; the mosquito curtain, especially if put down an hour before dusk and kept down as long after sunrise, is a valuable preventive of the approach of mosquitoes at night, but with definite limits to its usefulness; and drugging with large quantities of quinine is manifestly undesirable as a permanent method of dealing with the matter.
We consider that we have no alternative but to recommend, as the one means of rendering the Police Station and its neighbourhood more healthy as regards malaria, the acquirement and reclamation or efficient drainage of all the paddy-fields within a radius of 250 yards from the foot of the hills on which the houses stand, including to the north-west the whole of the marshy water-bed to which we have already referred as a large permanent breeding-place of the malaria-bearing mosquito.
+
9. Finally, we recommend that the matsheds in use for the accommodation of the Civil Staff, affording as they do ready cover for adult mosquitoes, and also rendering the inmates liable to chills at night, should be replaced by permanent buildings; and we venture to suggest for the consideration of His Excellency that a more suitable and healthier site than those that have been proposed is available for the purpose. Observing that no permanent foundations for these buildings have yet been laid, and that an Island, 900 yards due east of the Police Station, and well removed from any considerable native population, is being connected with the mainland by a solid road and bridge, in order that a pier may be constructed from it to reach deep water, we made a careful examination of this island. We found no larvæ of mosquitoes, and should any breeding-places come to light after the thick undergrowth is cleared away, they could be readily eradicated. The location would probably be found convenient for executive purposes on account of the proximity of the proposed pier, and its isolation would render it much less malarious than either of the proposed sites even after the improvements we have suggested for the existing police station have been carried into effect.
It would be further conducive to the health of the Civil Staff, if the building were erected in two storeys, the ground floor to be used for office purposes, and residential quarters provided entirely on the upper floor.
Dr. John Bell,
We have, &c.,
T. M. YOUNG,
M.B., F.R.C.S., Ed. JOHN C. THOMSON,
M.D., H.A.
Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
Page 345
Page 346
338
28
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS- -MISCELLANEOUS.
the two rice-crops, is due to the disturbance at these times of mosquitoes. usually resting among the grass or growing paddy, and feeding on Chinese coming within their reach, such disturbance resulting in their flying further afield and finding their way in larger numbers to the houses on the hills.
8. Having given our most careful consideration to the facts above stated, in all their bearings, we have come to the conclusion that all temporary measures for the improvement of the health of the station at Táipó should be superseded with as little delay as possible by a definite scheme for the complete eradication of the breeding-places of the Anopheles mosquito over- a wide area surrounding the Police Station.
The district involved is too large to be efficiently dealt with by any culcicide; the cutting and clearing of long grass and shrubs from the hillside is only a subsidiary measure, though undoubtedly a useful one; the mosquito curtain, especially if put down an hour before dusk and kept down as long after sunrise, is a valuable preventive of the approach of mosquitoes at night, but with definite limits to its usefulness; and drugging with large quantities of quinine is manifestly undesirable as a permanent method of dealing with the matter.
We consider that we have no alternative but to recommend, as the one means of rendering the Police Station and its neighbourhood more healthy as regards malaria, the acquirement and reclamation or efficient drainage of all the paddy-fields within a radius of 250 yards from the foot of the hills on which the houses stand, including to the north-west_the- whole of the marshy water-bed to which we have already referred as a large permanent breeding-place of the malaria-bearing mosquito.
+
9. Finally, we recommend that the matsheds in use for the accom- modation of the Civil Staff, affording as they do ready cover for adult mosquitoes, and also rendering the inmates liable to chills at night, should be replaced by permanent buildings; and we venture to suggest for the consideration of His Excellency that a more suitable and healthier site than- those that have been proposed is available for the purpose. Observing that no permanent foundations for these buildings have yet been laid, and that an Island, 900 yards due east of the Police Station, and well removed from any considerable native population, is being connected with the mainland by a solid road and bridge, in order that a pier may be constructed from it to reach deep water, we made a careful examination: of this island. We found no larve of mosquitoes, and should any breeding-places come to light after the thick undergrowth is cleared away, they could be readily eradicated. The location would probably be found' convenient for executive purposes on account of the proximity of the proposed pier, and its isolation would render it much less malarious than either of the proposed sites even after the improvements we have suggesteď for the existing police station have been carried into effect.
It would be further conducive to the health of the Civil Staff, if the, building were erected in two storeys, the ground floor to be used for office purposes, and residential quarters provided entirely on the upper- floor.
Dr. John Bell,
We have, &c.,
T. M. YOUNG,
M.B., F.R.C.S., Ed. JOHN C. THOMSON,
M.D., H.A.
Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
Page 345Page 346
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